The Eye of Eternity
by Wordcounter
Summary: Earth-Bet is a dangerous place ... even for parahumans or people with powers. Can a person with the skills of a shinobi or even a combination of bloodline limits make it in Earth-Bet?
1. Chapter 1

THE EYE OF ETERNITY

Disclaimer: Naruto and Worm concepts and ideas belong to their respective creators.

AN: This was supposed to be incorporated originally into INTERIM but I could not get the two ideas to fit together from the very beginning. They were just not compatible.

Synopsis:

"They say all the power in the universe cannot alter destiny."

"They say fate or destiny has been written and the future itself is set in stone."

"But is that really true?"

"Is fate or destiny truly _immutable_?"

"That is something we are going to put to the test. So I ask you these three questions."

"Are you ready to change the fate of the world?"

"Yes!"

"Can you succeed where Uchiha Madara failed?"

"YES!"

"Can you stop the destruction of mankind on your world?"

"AND **YES!**"

"You sound very sure of yourself. Perhaps that is a good thing. A lifetime ago, an _itvara_ gave Madara a warning about what was coming. His mind _failed_ to grasp the true meaning of the man's words, however, and as a result, _the Elemental Nations were completely destroyed in a calamity unlike any the world had ever seen_. "

"_The Elemental Nations?_ "

"What you people refer to nowadays as _Atlantis and Lemuria_."

"I give you this warning now. _Eden did not come alone_. Should you fail this time, not only will the lives on this world _be forfeited_, countless lives on _other worlds_ will be _wiped out_ as well."

"Then that doesn't leave us much of a choice, does it? WE WILL **WIN!**"

"Very good! Remember ... whatever happens then ... _do not forget Wormwood!_"

[A:]

It was a beautiful morning, a day seemingly unremarkable like any other. The air was fresh with birds singing in the air, cows grazing on grass while flowers bloomed in the hills and the meadows. Things were pretty much uneventful for the day but unknown to many, something was about to happen and with it, destiny was about to be unmade.

The skies began to glow with a bright light as a majestic presence began to make itself known.

"Through the terms of thy entreaty, we have come. In accordance to the terms of the Compact, we have rendered our judgement," three voices spoke in unison, their sounds echoing to the surroundings.

They were here. The gods had finally answered his call. The figure of a man in tattered and torn robes sitting below the tree deep in meditation slowly opened his eyes. For three years, he had not looked upon the world. For three years he had not moved from this spot all in preparation for this moment. Now all he had to do was seize it to attain his objective.

His meditation below the tree easily helped him to maintain his composure and growing excitement in the divine presence of the _Trimurthi_. His hair had grown long and unkempt while the flesh covering his bones had shrunk giving the appearance of a thin, haggard and skinny old man ... in short just skin and bones. But who wouldn't be, after three long years of unending meditation and fasting to receive his rightful reward?

"State thy first boon, He-Who-Keeps-To-The-Terms-Of-The-Compact," one of the divine _Trimurthi_ spoke ... his voice distinct from all the others.

"Let no god, spirit or demon ever prevail against me, mighty divine Lord Brahma, Keeper of the Law and Giver of Life. May they fall before me as surely as the seasons and days that go by," the man answered slowly but confidently.

"Entreat me with thy second boon, son of man," the voice this time was different but no less majestic than the first.

"Let neither Death nor the forces of the Underworld ever lay claim to my soul, Lord Vishnu, Guardian of the Sanctuary. Keep me safe from their clutches for all time!" his voice rang throughout the woods in reply.

"And the third and final boon?"

"Let my eyes surpass both the Rinnegan and the Mokuton in power, ability and potential, Lord Shiva, Hunter and Destroyer of All Things, that I may accomplish feats that not even my father had ever dreamed of and break the cycle of _Samsara_!"

"Are the three boons to be granted in accordance to thy wishes, son of man, for once granted, they cannot be changed or undone?" the divine _Trimurthi_ asked in unison, their voices filling the surroundings.

"They are as I've stated, Lord Brahma, Creator of All Things that is," the man answered in a melodic tone of voice.

"Very well, the three boons have been stated and given. Death will keep its distance from thee. No god, spirit or demon will ever best thee in mortal combat. Thou, however, can still be bested and slain by those not named in the terms and through death thine eyes will be opened to surpass the Rinnegan and the Mokuton and finally break the cycle of Samsara. SO SHALL IT BE UCHIHA MADARA!"

And the final words the voices had spoken echoed through her mind and soul, waking her up from her sleep.

Sure the dream had been the same like the ones she had been having night after night since the bullying campaign at school started. About this strange man called Uchiha Madara and the gods of Hindu mythology from what she could find out on the WorldNet. Information regarding the gods of Hindu mythology especially _the Divine Triad_ :- Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva were readily available in considerable amounts but not information regarding this mysterious man called Uchiha Madara.

The one thing that caught her attention were the similarities of the events in her dream to an old Indian legend, namely the _Ramayana_ where the only difference was the characters involved in which Madara was human whereas Ravana was a _Raksasha_.

She still remembered when it all began. The dream came to her the first time after mother died. It was not very clear then and she could not hear any sounds. And then it became clearer and clearer in sight and in sound with each passing night.

But it had never happened in the day before. Nor had it ever been this vivid before. Was she finally going insane? Had she finally well and truly snapped? She was so caught up in her own thoughts that she had not even realised that she was trapped in her own locker until some time later.

And that was when she realised the smell in the locker was really bad and there were bugs crawling all over the used tampoons. Not to mention the time the shrieks or cries for help actually began ... with no one to hear her cries for help. She wanted to be out of the locker ... her fists hammering ineffectively against it ... and all of a sudden ... the surroundings changed in a whirlwind of colours and our poor protaganist found herself standing outside of the locker.

The corridor was deserted and silent like the dead. It was all too clear that everyone had gone home. Was that all just a dream then? she wondered. The smell and the bugs still crawling on her clothes, told her otherwise. It was not a dream. But then ... how had she got out of the locker? She had wanted to be out ... and ... she was out. Oh joy! She could be a cape! And a hero! Just to be sure ... she visualised the classroom and wanted to be there ... there was another whirlwind of colours and there she was at the door of the classroom.

Through this experimentation of her newly-found teleportation ability, she also made another discovery ... a strange energy that went through her body in coils. _Chakra_ ... a voice from a memory called it. It could be used for many things such as walking up walls, jumping from the ground to the roof of the building, walking on water, controlling the elements, seals, illusions, clones, shapeshifting ... More memories of places and people she had never seen came to the fore in her mind.

She knew all those places and people even though she had never seen them before. They were special people ... all of them ... with unusual abilities and powers. Jutsus, bloodline limits and seals. Her memories of those people were full of them. All of them would be considered as parahumans or capes by her world's standards, this she knew. And like the people of this world ... there was good ... and there was evil ... Uchiha Madara believed that he was doing the world a favour by getting rid of the Shinobi Age and with it, all its capacity for evil but he was wrong. Evil would always exist in some form with or without _Shinobis_ ... or ... parahumans for that matter.

In the end, Madara had died at the hands of his archenemy, Naruto Uzumaki, the Tailed-Beast Container. Strangely enough ... he had burst out laughing as he lay dying ... his words pouring scorn on Naruto and creeping out his surviving friends and allies completely.

"U ... zu ... ma ... ki ... My ... death ... is ... only ... the ... be ... gin ... ning ... Des ... ti ... ny ... E ... le ... men ... tal ... Na ... tions ... can ... not ... be ... changed ... _Eden ... is ... co ... ming ..._" he choked on his blood ... and everything turned white.

Now about walking on walls with chakra ... Taylor looked at the wall of the school as she finally came to herself ... She took a deep breath ... it was certainly going to take a leap of faith. But she would not try walking on walls this night. It was not time yet, she reasoned. Taylor moved to pick up her scattered things from the ground and that was when she learned of one thing. She was looking at things clearly without her glasses!

In fact, things looked much clearer and sharper than before. In fact she could see all the minute holes in the ceiling as well as the key hole in the door knob in the door further down the corridor. She could also see past the wall into the locked staff room ... and from there into the Principal's office. The school notices, the teaching memos, the student register with the names on it ... she could see it all ... like she was standing there ... though she had lost sight of where she was now ...

Could she change focus? Yes! She could! She found herself looking in the corridor of the school once again.

Taylor ran down the corridor with her bag. She had one theory to test. Could she actually see anywhere she wanted ... with no limit whatsoever? She looked through the window of the school into the night and made a new discovery. She could actually see all round the school without being there at all. How far did it go? How far could she see? She wondered.

Her vision changed as she moved her gaze to different parts of Brockton Bay ... Like before ... it showed her everything in crystal clear clarity ... even the parts of Brockton Bay that were shrouded in darkness due to damaged lights or the absence of any lighting in the area. Not to mention, a sense of freedom that she had never felt before. She was happily sightseeing through Brockton Bay when she came across a sight that disturbed her.

A blonde woman in her twenties was running as fast she could from four masked men in gang insignia behind her. Taylor could not hear what they were saying to the woman, but it was obvious that the woman was very frightened of them. One of the men quickened his pace and was about to run her down when Taylor wished she could do something to help her.

Anything ...

No! she screamed as she saw a man taking out a syringe from his coat ... chakra entered her palms and the running man was suddenly thrown backwards into his buddies, sending them flying more than ten feet into the air. The woman did not waste time looking behind her to see what had happened.

'_Bansho Tennin_ ... a power of the Rinnegan ...' a male voice spoke.

Taylor turned around instinctively in the direction of the voice ... her eyes combing the entire school but there was no one around her. Her vision was about to go back to the scene of the crime when something else drew her attention. Two vans had pulled up at a house and began to disgorge masked men in full military gear.

One of them cut off the phone line and the power line to the house while the others smashed their way through the doors into the house. Three of them used the front door while two of them each used the back and side doors. They were armed with sniper rifles equipped with silencers. Taylor followed them in with her vision as they headed for the bedrooms. They rammed their way in and aimed their weapons at the couple in bed who were just waking up from the noise.

Taylor had seen enough. Repeating the same trick that she did earlier on with the four gang members, she used _Bansho Tennin_, pulling the men into the air right into the walls of the house. They struck the wall with terrific force, knocking themselves out almost immediately. Two of their comrades rushed to checked on them while the other two began looking around the house for the alleged assailant.

'_Shinra Tensei_ ... Use it,' urged the same voice she had heard earlier.

Trusting her instincts, Taylor unleashed her chakra and the men flew as though struck by unseen hands. Two of them flew into the front wall while another flew through the glass window, shattering it into pieces to land on the grass outside. Taylor followed the masked man lying on the grass outside to see a man forcefully dragging a teenaged girl out of the house into one of the vans.

'_The Mokuton_ ... Use it now,' the same mysterious voice instructed.

Once again, chakra flooded the area and the grass around it began to grow at a tremendous rate to wrap themselves around the fleeing man with his prisoner. The man took out a knife to cut the grass but more grass grew until he was completely buried in it. The two drivers in the waiting vans did not wait to see what would happen next. They drove their vehicles away into the darkness of the night.

Taylor drew back her vision into the school and pondered her actions once again. Had everything been a dream or did it all really happened? Having seen enough of the nightlife of Brockton Bay, she decided to leave for home ... and for the first time ... with true hope and joy in her eyes.

It was only after she had arrived at the bus stop did she realise her first problem. Since it was already late into the night, bus service was over for the day. Taylor had no other option but to head home on foot. Her home was about three kilometers from the school and she took a deep breath before taking the path that would bring her home.


	2. Chapter 2

[B:]

It was then she remembered her teleporting ability and was about to use it when a certain memory came to the fore. It showed her scenes from the viewpoint of Uchiha Madara who was moving by teleporting from one place to another continuously. The thing that caught her attention was the fact that Madara did not teleport directly to his destination in one big jump but did it in a series of small hops or blinks all over the place.

'Movement through the _Transmigration of the Soul_,' a familiar voice seemed to say.

Instinctively, Taylor looked around in the direction of the speaker even though she knew she was not going to see him.

Why didn't Madara just teleport directly to his destination?

'Chakra consumption,' came the answer from the same mysterious voice.

Another memory came to the fore.

Long distance teleports consumed a lot of chakra in one use, making it dangerous for the user due to the increased likelihood of chakra exhaustion and the low-level of chakra available to the user after that use. Consequently needing time to recover all that chakra. Precious time, which was not always available due to the situation. Not to mention, chakra exhaustion could also kill the user if the user was not careful. Soldier pills could, of course, be used to regain chakra in a hurry, but it had undesirable side-effects and were also not available at this time.

She wanted to try another 'short-ranged _Transmigration of the Soul_' but the voice cautioned her on the demonstration of her abilities in such a public place even at this time of the night. The Way of the _Shinobi_ or _Ninja_ was all about silence and efficiency in carrying out the mission. No unnecessary public displays of skills or abilities unless it was essential for completion of the mission. To be a Ninja, Taylor would have to change her very way of life and thinking, that she may be a hero albeit one that strikes at evil from the shadows.

Deep in her heart, Taylor already knew what sort of costume she was going to use. Namely that of a faceless Ninja. She was already mentally going through the equipment and weapons that Ninja carried to carry out the mission. Shinobi like Madara favoured _kunai_ or _senbon_ due to the ease in which they could conceal those weapons on their bodies though big weapons like Zabuza's _Kubikiri Bocho_ or Kisame's _Samehada_ were also used.

Long-ranged weapons such as _shuriken_ and _shaken_ were also utilised when it was ideal to hit the enemy from afar. Although Taylor's aspirations as a hero limited ... no ... modified her arsenal somewhat due to the fact that she could not kill her targets.

Ninja also carried a variety of tools with them for completion of the mission such as flash powder, lockpicks, exploding tags ... exploding tags? Since there was no source of exploding tags in Brockton Bay at the moment, she would have to create them herself using _Fuuinjutsu_, meaning more study ... and training in hand to hand combat methods both armed and unarmed.

But all that thinking brought up another big headache to our poor hero. Where was she going to get all the time she needed to train herself in her knowledge of _Fuuinjutsu_, both armed and unarmed combat as well as all the jutsus and abilities that she was going to inherit from this Uchiha Madara? All the time in addition to having to go to school for education as meaningless as it was since the dreaded Trio tended to ruin her lessons at school?

'Do what is necessary first and the unnecessary last. If both things are needed, a sacrifice would have to be made. Those are the choices that Shinobi don't like to do but would have to make in the course of the mission,' the unseen speaker advised.

Seeing that becoming a Ninja was going to be a full-time job, Taylor finally decided to drop school and began her training as soon as she could. She was certain that she could get her father to agree to her request to drop high school once she told him of the bullying incidents that had been going on for more than a year in her life and her suggestion that she got homeschooling instead to make up for it.

This would, of course, allow her to have more time to prepare her Ninja gear as quickly as possible. Ninja constumes were not expensive or difficult to prepare. Taylor was reasonably sure she could weave one up in a month ... which would of course cut down the amount of time she had available for training ... when she remembered something ... the clone jutsu ... the _Kage Bushin No Jutsu_ ... Madara's archenemy, Naruto Uzumaki was very fond of using it or variations of it. She would have to look into this jutsu and master it as soon as possible.

Taylor was esctatic about the whole thing despite the challenges ahead. The possibilities were endless with a whole new world of options in front of her. In the meantime, she would have to use eggshell bombs as a substitute for exploding tags. Though this would allow her the opportunity of mixing the powders or chemicals that she wanted into the eggs.

Oh joy ... Taylor thought as her footsteps carried her closer to home.

It was late at night or was it early morning? ... when Taylor reached the doorsteps of her house. It was dark in the house meaning that her father had gone to bed. She briefly activated her special sight to confirm her suspicion. True enough, her father was asleep in bed. Putting the key into the lock, she turned it and the door latch lifted.

Giving the door a push, she stepped into the house reaching for the light switch automatically before stopping herself after realizing two things. One, her father was already asleep and she didn't want to wake him up. Two, she was still able to see everything clearly in the darkness of the house without any trouble at all despite the absence of light.

She took off her shoes and closed the door as quietly as she could, stopping briefly to check using her special sight if her father had woken up from the noise of the door being closed. He remained fast asleep. Good. She tiptoed to her room with her bag making her way slowly past the sofa and the television set in the living room before heading for her bedroom down the hall.

After placing her bag on the ground, she decided to grab a towel and take a bath for she smelt rather bad after being locked in the locker with all that disgusting stuff. Though she could only wonder in amazement as to the effort and the amount of trouble the Trio was prepared to go through to make her life a living hell. She also briefly wondered how they managed to put up with the smell themselves in order to get it all in the locker.

She quietly headed to the bathroom with a set of clean clothes and closed the door. After getting into the cubicle, she turned on the shower, feeling the fresh clean water wash away the dirt and soothe her tired body. She also took the soap into her hand and scrubbed her body with it.

"Taylor, is that you?" a concerned voice called out from outside the bathroom door.

"Yes Dad," she answered meekly ... somewhat.

"I thought you were having a sleepover at Emma's house for the weekend. She called me from school today to let me know," her father exclaimed in surprise.

"Did she tell you that? Dad ... Emma lied to you," Taylor pointed out.

"Lied to me? Why would she do that? She's your friend," her father continued, his voice a mixture of puzzlement and confusion.

"Dad, Emma is not my friend. In fact, she has not been my friend for a very long time. I will tell you more after I finished my bath," she answered with a sigh.

"Okay ... I'll be waiting for you in the living room," he said.

After finishing her shower, she changed into her clean clothes while looking into the mirror, drawing her breath involuntarily as she did so. She gasped again at the look in the mirror. Her face looked the same but her eyes ... her eyes ... they were different. The normal whiteness of her sclera and her green pupils were missing.

In their place, was a ... she quickly turned on the lights in her bathroom to see a pitch-black darkness in her eyes broken only by the movement of dancing purple spirals that seemed to elongate and change in size ... before shifting into spinning white spheres that danced across the dark void of her eyes ... and then changing into red crystal-like multi-pointed stars that appeared to be turning and tumbling through the total darkness of her eyes before shifting back into those purple spirals again.

"Oh ... My ... God ..." she managed to breathe out.

'Dad is so going to freak out,' were the first thoughts tearing through her mind.

Taylor kept staring at the mirror for a time ... who knows how long a time ... before heading for the door wondering what she was going to tell her father. Opening the bathroom door, she stepped out into the corridor and headed for the living room where her father was waiting for her. She took a seat at the kitchen table opposite her father, surreptiously keeping her gaze averted so that he could not see her eyes.

Once she knew that he was listening, she began her story starting with the bullying incidents at school and the lack of action from the school staff to do anything about it until the time she was shoved and imprisoned in her locker with all the dirty tampoons. It was not easy for her to do so talking about the traumatic incidents in her life but Taylor presevered despite the bad memories. Her father had, of course, flown into a rage upon hearing it and vowed to take action against the school bullies and the school administration about it.

It had taken some effort to calm her father down but she finally succeeded in doing so as she subtly reminded her father that Emma's father was also a lawyer who could make things very difficult for them due to lack of proof and the availability of reliable witnesses in coming forward to help with the bullying incidents.

From there, she had also spoken about her attempts into getting transferred to a new school like Arcadia High but it was nigh-impossible to get in there due to a long wait list for students. After much thinking about her life and the lack of progress in her education, she had finally told her father about the suggestion to homeschool her instead of going back to Winslow High.

Having a lack of better options to turn to, her father had agreed to her suggestion and told her that he would helped to look around for a tutor for her. Taylor cheered silently in her heart at her father's agreement though his next question disturbed her somewhat even though she had expected it.

"Taylor, why are your eyes closed?"

"Well ... I triggered ... in the locker," she said somewhat hesitantly.

"Triggered? You ... a cape now?" he asked in disbelief.

By way of reply, she disappeared from where she was sitting to appear on the sofa in the living room. Then she faded away from the sofa and reappeared on the chair she had vacated moments ago.

"That was how I got out from the locker. I've got Mover abilities Dad," she answered.

Her father could only gape in astonishment at what he had just seen.

"But my eyes have changed. I was afraid it might startle you if you saw them."

"Changed? Startle me? How?" her father managed to croak out.

Taylor silently opened her eyes. For a few moments, her father could only look on in total silence at the person his daughter had become. And then ... he collapsed back into his chair.

"Dad?!" Taylor cried out, concern and fear filling her voice.

Somewhere in the vastness of deep space ... two large entities made out of golden coloured stars hovered ...

_Agreement._


	3. Chapter 3

[C:]

When her father had collapsed back into chair, Taylor was worried and reacted accordingly. She sprang forward and was by her father's side in an instant. She studied him worriedly as her father's eyes seemed to be motionless and looking through her as though she wasn't even there. Taylor quickly shook her father worriedly.

"Whoa ... Since when did you get so strong?" he asked.

"Are you okay, Dad?" Taylor asked.

"Yes, I think," came the answer.

"Do you need me to call the paramedics?"

"No ... I'm fine. Just more worried about you Taylor," Danny Herbert answered and got up from his chair.

"Just stick me with homeschooling and things should improve," Taylor replied in as cheery a tone as she could manage.

"Let's get some sleep. We'll talk more about this tomorrow." Danny walked to his bedroom in resignation.

Taylor did the same. She had told her father more things than she had told him in the past three years but she had not told him everything. For one, she had not mentioned the voice to her Dad, not wanting to give him cause to worry even more and for another, she had not mentioned how much she was able to see with her new vision. Or the fact that her bedroom remained clear to her eyes even in total darkness.

Meanwhile ... in his bedroom, Danny Herbert remained wide awake in bed. For one thing, he had a lot on his mind. Between his daughter getting bullied in school and the school's unofficial participation in the matter by turning a blind eye to whatever had been going on for the past two years, he certainly had a lot to think about. He was doubtful that he would be able to get any more sleep that night so he decided to go for a brief walk outside his house. Quickly, he got changed and took his keys. He headed for the door quietly, not wanting to disturb his daughter who would be sleeping in bed.

The door to the house opened and Danny Herbert stepped outside. Once outside the front yard of his house, he had begun thinking about the situation. There were many things to consider. The first was his legal options against the school administration. He wanted very badly to sue the school but the presence of Emma's lawyer Dad, Mr. Barnes, made things difficult. Not to mention, the unco-operative attitude of the students and the staff in the school. It was very likely, based on Taylor's words, that no one would come forward to testify on behalf of his beloved daughter ... and therein lay the dilemma.

How could he prove that the school administration was culpable in the bullying case via willful negligence? He could consult a lawyer but it would cost money ... precious money that he could ill-afford to spare in these difficult times. And once he had started on the road to sue the school, Danny knew he could not afford to lose the case. The school would most likely retaliate with a lawsuit of its own against him to cover up their accountability with Mr. Barnes's help, of course, since Emma was involved. Even if he won the lawsuit, the case would most likely drag out in court as lawsuits were prone to with the offending party appealing against the case until it reached the Supreme Court.

So ... what could he do then? What could he do for his beloved daughter that was all that remained of his deceased wife, Annette?

The head of the Dockworkers' Union wondered as he was suddenly surrounded by men in gang insignias. He had been thinking so much about the situation that he barely registered the presence of the men or danger coming from them as they stepped around him. Even then, Danny barely acknowledged them as his mind was on other matters that he regarded to be more urgent.

He had so much to think about that when the bald-headed chinese man in front of him punched him in the face, it took him by surprise. Strangely enough, he felt nothing, if not a bit more energized. Danny Herbert who was certainly not in a good mood at the time responded in a rather predictable manner. He punched the man back without a word. The guy who was punched, got thrown back a distance of five feet and the rest of his gang (now that Danny noticed), needless to say, became rather pissed off.

One of them, who was bare-chested and covered with body tattoos, took out his katana and slashed at Danny Herbert with it. Danny simply blocked the descending blade with his arm, caught hold of the charging man and relieved him of it after giving him a nice kick in between the legs. He crumpled to the ground in a heap.

The second man ... or rather the third man who was wearing a black jacket was smarter. He quickly took out his gun and shot Danny three times at pointblank range. Much to his disbelief and shock, Danny continued moving as though nothing had happened. Three bullets fell to the ground in front of him as if they hadn't touched him.

"CAPE!" he screamed in fear.

Danny, however, felt great. Instead of bleeding to death on the ground from the bullets hitting his body, he had never felt better ... more alive dare he say it? Like he had more energy and strength than ever before. It was like he could take on the world and come out on top. And he would do it, of course, for his daughter. He turned on the rest of the men who had been accosting him with a grin on his face. They ran. The ones who were still conscious at least. He ran after them, not wanting any of them to escape his wrath.

After his humiliating defeat at the hands of_ Hashirama Senju_, the Uchiha Patriarch had travelled to many places _outside_ of the Elemental Nations, seeking knowledge far and wide to defeat his hated enemy. It was at this time that he had an encounter with a bald-headed man clad in goatskin clothes clutching a walking stick at one of the temples to the _devas_.

"Whence have you come from Uchiha Madara?" the strange man had asked.

Madara was immediately wary and on guard when the man had spoken his name without doubt or any hesitation. He would have struck him down on the spot but there was something _off_ about the man ... something _dangerous_ ... his senses were warning him and these things stopped him from doing so. Even without the use of his _sharingan_, Madara could tell that the man's aura was _old_ ... really _old_ ... and very powerful.

"Who are you? How do you know me? Answer or die right where you stand!" Madara threatened, having great difficulty trying to suppress his killer instinct to kill the strange man in goatskin clothes.

"Ahh ... the who, what-or-else-approach ... but you haven't answered my question ... whence have you come from, Uchiha Madara?" the strange man repeated his question.

There was no further use in threatening the man as he did not even seem to be bothered by it.

"The Elemental Nations," Madara answered truthfully.

It was not as if the strange man could do anything about it due to the great distance from his current location to the Elemental Nations.

"Ahh ... the truth ... very good. Very good. I am _Arjuna_, a fellow practitioner and seeker of truths, Madara. We all seek _Nirvana_ ... one way or another ... out of the cycle of _Samsara_ though we know it not ... at times. _Maya's illusions_ can have quite a strong hold on our consciousness," the man remarked ... seemingly pleased with Madara's answer.

"Why are you here?" Madara asked.

"This is for you," the mysterious dark-skinned _fakir_ handed him a scroll.

Madara's powerful sharingan eyes immediately scanned the scroll the man was holding, wary of any traps. There were none. He took it from the man's hand and looked through the contents.

"The _Dharma Sastra_," Madara exclaimed in wonderment.

"_Krishna's personal copy_. He told me to _pass_ it to you. The knowledge you seek is inside it. Teach the meditation techniques in it to _Danny Herbert_. He's going to need it to counter the_ shard's influence_ on his actions," the strange man explained.

Madara laughed. "I don't know this person or this _shard_ you're talking about."

"No ... not now. _But a lifetime from now_, _you_ _will_. Be _patient_ with him. The _shard's influences_ are quite strong," the strange man answered.

"Oh ... and one more thing before you go ... _don't hand the Dharma Sastra to Ravana_ until the meditation period is _up_."

"Why so?" Madara wondered about the strange request.

"Ravana likes to disturb the meditations of the pilgrims who quest for Nirvana. It would be very troublesome to get him to stop his antics. Also, just a quick reminder, the _niyoga_ of the Elemental Nations is _sealed_," the mysterious dark-skinned fakir explained.

"Sealed? I do not understand," the Uchiha Patriach stated.

"There is _nothing_ you or anyone can do that will change anything. _Eden is coming_," came the strange reply.

Madara blinked his eyes and the man was _gone_. He searched the area with his _Sharingan_ but there was no sign of him at all. It was like he was _never_ there.

So, those tough guy-wannabes thought they could just get away with themselves beating him up, eh? He grabbed hold of one them and lifted said person high up into the air with one hand. That black leather-jacket tough guy-wannabe, Danny noted, shrieked loudly for help as he struggled futilely in Danny's iron grip. His two other fellow tough-guy wannabes, in the meantime, had taken the opportunity to slip away.

"And now for the touchdown! There's nothing like American Football!" Danny shouted as he threw the man over a high wall.

The Chinese man screamed in fear as he flew through the air and then the cry of fear turned to pain as he crashed into something behind the twelve-foot wall.

"I'm quite sure they didn't hear you screaming for your mama from three miles away," Danny scoffed as he leaped over the high wall to land without a sound beside the leather-jacket man who had pulled out the gun earlier on him.

"You ... will ... be ... sor-ry ... when Lung ... gets ... here," the Asian tough guy-wannabe groaned from the pain he was in.

"Really ... and who is this **BIG** ... **BAD** ... **LUNG** ... that I should watch out for? Do I see him anywhere?" Danny gestured at the surroundings of the deserted warehouse.

Now, normally Danny would never have spoken nor acted in such a way but he was feeling quite pumped up from all the energy he could feel coursing through his body, invigorating him and strengthening him in ways that he could not imagine. It was like there was nothing that he could not take on and win in a fight.

"You .. will ... know ... when ... he ... gets ... here. He ... will ... a-venge ... us. You're ... dead ..., " the man coughed out some blood and pointed in a direction behind Danny.

Danny turned around to see the figure of a broad-shouldered and well-built man covered in body tattoos looking at him from the top of another building. That was his only warning when a sudden explosion engulfed him from out of nowhere.

Lung was not a happy man, his hands simmering with the occasional flame and smoke. Next to him, Oni Lee remained his normal stoic self but ready for action at a moment's notice. Facing the parahuman members of the ABB were close to a hundred of their normal unpowered thugs gathered together, awaiting his orders. As expected, they were heavily armed with all sorts of weapons including firearms and sharp blades. The rest had been sent out to scout for the location of their quarry for the night ... the Undersiders.

After the Undersider's daring raid on one of the main storehouses of the ABB that resulted in the loss of quite a large sum of cash and resources due to a combination of theft and damage, Lung knew instantly that a strong response was needed. One that would drive in the message to not only the Undersiders ... but more importantly ... the Brockton Bay community that the ABB was not a force to be tangled with. This was important for two reasons. One, it would allow him to project the strength of the ABB to dissuade any further similar attempts by future would-be interlopers and two, ... prevent the Undersiders from growing any stronger into a possible threat.

Right now, they were all waiting for the return of scouts in locating their target. So far, they had yet to return. Just then ... two of their men broke into the room, breathing heavily as if they had been running a marathon.

Inwardly Lung wondered at their tired and sorry state, if they had just narrowly escaped from the Undersiders. He had expected the men to tell them of their target's location but he was wrong. Instead, the two men told him that they had just narrowly escaped from another unidentified cape who had taken down three of their fellow gang members.

"And this cape was alone?" Lung queried.

"Yes! He must be a brute or something because nothing we did seem to affect him including guns."

He had immediately ordered his men to take him to this unidentified cape. Behind him, Oni Lee followed. The two men had brought him to the place they had fled from him. Not surprisingly they could not find him. Lung asked the rest of his men to scout the area but they still didn't find him. Finally he had ordered Oni Lee to teleport him to the rooftop of the highest building in the area where they could have a better view of their new quarry.

And behind the high wall of a large warehouse, Lung saw him ... The man was openly mocking his henchman and his name in the air rather loudly.

"Lee ... get Siu Han out of there," he ordered.

He was personally going to teach the new cape a lesson in manners as to who the real power was in Brockton Bay. The simmering flames and smoke covering his hands began to grow. The new cape would soon learn to fear the name of Lung. He continued to look down on the unidentified cape from his position on top of the building with disdain.

Just as he had expected, Oni Lee had teleported next to Siu Han and warped him out of there when the man turned to look at Lung. As usual after every teleport, Oni Lee left a clone behind ... The clone pulled the pin and the grenade exploded just as the man turned back to look at Siu Han shattering the wall of the warehouse with tremendous force. The roof collapsed and with it some of the power lines that began sparking wildly. The unidentified cape, however, remained unharmed, Lung noted.

Oni Lee had then teleported right next to the man and departed once again, leaving a clone that pulled the pin of another grenade. Once again, it exploded with terrific force though the explosion did not appear to have harmed the cape. The cape was definitely a brute of some sort, Lung was sure. Once again Oni Lee reappeared behind him and then warped away, leaving his clone to pull the pin.

The unidentified cape struck the clone, causing the clone to collapse into ash before the grenade could be primed. Not deterred in the least, Oni Lee reappeared to his side leaving a clone to pull the pin. The cape lashed out with his fists at the clone but was unsuccessful this time as the grenade exploded in his face.

Though seemingly unharmed, the unidentified cape did not look very happy now as he seemed unable to respond to Oni Lee's attacks with any real effectiveness. In anger, he called on Oni Lee to face him down like a real man and fight. Oni Lee, of course, remained silent to the unidentified cape's taunts and insults and simply continued attacking in his usual silent manner.

Finally, in great anger, the unidentified cape slammed his fists into the ground, causing a powerful shockwave to ripple outwards, from his position, shattering the ground beneath him and the powerlines to tumble down, one of which, struck the cape. Electrical energy surged into the unidentified cape's body and then the lights in the area began to flicker before going out, Lung noted with interest. Darkness covered the surroundings and the cape began to glow with electrical energy. Unseen by all of them, the lights in Brockton Bay began to go out, city block by city block.

Then, all of a sudden, without warning, the unidentified cape threw a crackling arc of electricity around him that expanded outwards, hitting everything within range including Lung himself and Oni Lee.


	4. Chapter 4

[D:]

Armsmaster was riding around on his bike, doing his usual patrol in the neighbourhood at night. It was a rather uneventful patrol, with nothing happening. Which was good news since the streets of Brockton Bay were not safe at night. He had not gone far, just passing through one or two neighbourhoods when something happened. Around him, the streetlights flickered and then dimmed into darkness. The traffic lights ahead dimmed into darkness as well.

'Huh? Power's out,' he thought.

"Hello Dragon. Armmaster here. Could you call the power company and tell them to send someone to check the power grid? There's a power outage and all the lights are out," he said.

"On to it," Dragon cheerfully chimed in.

"That's strange ... there's a power surge through a section of the grid and it's tripping all the energy grids statewide. Picking up a massive energy drain coming from ... an abandoned warehouse next to the Dockyards."

"I'll go and check it out. Could be some rogue Tinker with some energy-intensive device," Armsmaster answered before heading off in the direction of the Dockyards.

Once again Taylor opened her eyes, being stirred wide awake from her restful sleep by her dreams. Her thoughts were now focused on the fateful encounter between Madara and this strange man ... no ... _kshatriya_ her subconcious corrected ... called _Arjuna_. From what she knew, it was clear that Madara did not know Arjuna prior to this meeting ... yet the strange man had known him and called him by name even when Madara was travelling _incognito_.

But that wasn't all. What made the situation even more surreal and unbelievable was the fact that Arjuna had mentioned the name _Danny Herbert_, _her father's name_ ... which stretched her suspense of disbelief and bordered on the level of incredulity. It couldn't be a genuine part of Madara's memory, could it? she wondered inwardly at the thought.

Taylor was quite sure that Madara or whoever it was that the memory had originated from, had lived or died a very long time ago judging from the attire they were using, their fashion sense and the way they carried themselves. She briefly wondered if she might have imagined the whole thing but found it a rather difficult conclusion to accept as she had neither heard of a name nor seen any person using a name like Arjuna or even Madara before.

It also raised a whole host of disturbing questions with it. For example, what did Arjuna mean by saying that Madara was going to _encounter_ Danny Herbert a lifetime from then? Did that mean that Madara was still _alive_? She was quite certain that Madara had been slain by Naruto Uzumaki somewhere down the line so he could not have been anywhere alive at the present time.

She was also quite sure that Madara could not have known anything remotely familiar or similar to her father's name so that left the unbelievable conclusion, no matter how impossible it might seem. But she would have to check the _WorldNet_ first just to be sure. She got up from bed and turned on the old computer her mother had bought for her as a birthday gift many years ago. The screen remained dark. She switched the computer off and then on again. No change. Not even the slightest sign of life from it.

Instinctively, she turned on the light. The room remained dark. There was no sound, even from the ventilation system. She went to the door of her bedroom and opened it. It was completely dark and silent in the corridor. Not even a sound from the refrigerator. Taylor activated her _Sight_. Once again, she was able to see faraway from her house. She looked in all directions around her house from outside. The entire neighbourhood was shrouded in darkness. Even the usual dimly streetlights were out.

Taylor looked farther with her _Sight_. And she saw it ... fire ... several buildings and the Dockyard itself was on fire. Getting concerned, she moved her Sight to find out how big the fire was and discovered ... to her shock ... the parahuman criminal Lung _fighting her father!_

The battle was truly an epic one, Oni Lee concluded from the sidelines. He had left the field just in time before he got struck by a massive wave of electrical energy being released by the unknown cape into the surroundings which had come very close to killing him. If he had been a split second late in leaving, he would have ended up dead or in critical condition. He frowned at the thought inwardly. Well ... that and Lung's personal entry into the fight had forced him to depart permanently from the scene.

He had been studying the intensifying battle between Lung and the unknown cape for some time now. From what he could see, the fight between Lung and the unknown cape was going to take a long time since neither seemed capable of truly harming the other. The leader of the ABB was fighting the unknown cape with a seriousness he had only seen with strong or powerful opponents, Oni Lee mused, from a faraway building.

Still one glaring little fact disturbed Oni Lee deeply. Regardless of the strength Lung had put into his blows or the amount of heat Lung had put into his flames, the unknown cape, remained unhurt, looking none the worse for wear by his attacks. It was as if the unknown cape was completely invulnerable to Lung's attacks.

Oni Lee had no idea how close he was to the truth. Every attack, be it done by physical blows or burning flames invigorated Danny, strengthening his body, improving his overall health in ways that he could not even imagine. His body cells greedily absorbed the energy, storing it for future use or instant use.

Unknown to both him and the leader of the ABB, the harder Lung attacked Danny, the stronger Danny became which in turn, made Danny hit back at Lung harder than ever before. Not to be outdone, Lung was of course ramping up as the fight progressed, becoming bigger and stronger by the minute.

He was now easily fifteen feet tall, towering way above the unknown cape. Not to mention becoming more and more draconic with each passing minute, the flames leaving his body burning hotter and brighter than ever before to the point that even the gravel that came into contact with his clawed feet was melting and smoking slightly.

Oni Lee did not even dare to get close to where the two capes were battling it out as the heat was becoming all too great for him or anyone else to get near without risking a severe burn.

Brockton Bay had become rather dark and silent ... like the city of the dead, Armsmaster thought rather morbidly as he piloted his Tinker-made bike to his destination ... the warehouse by the Dockyards where the massive energy drain that Dragon had detected was taking place. As he was about to reach the place, he spotted gouts of flame licking the ramshackled and decrepit buildings in the area.

'A fire?' he wondered as he called Dragon to alert the fire department about it.

Suddenly, the large figure of a fifteen-foot long flame-covered dragon flew through the air past him to smash into a large wooden two-story building in front of him with a loud crash.

"Wait! Cancel that order. Lung is involved. Alert the PRT and Director Piggot," the leader of the Wards summed up the situation as he watched the large wooden two-story building caught fire in front of him.

Quickly, he took out his tranquilizer darts and loaded them into his gun. They were designed to take Lung down ... theoretically ... that was the hope anyway. He had never had the chance to test them out and wasn't sure if these experimental weapons would work on the fire-breathing dragon man the way they should. His eyes caught sight of a six-foot tall man in a winter jacket and work clothes stepping out onto the road.

Oddly enough, the man did not seemed to be bothered by the heat or the burning structures around him. Armsmaster was about to ask the man whom he thought to be a civillian to leave when he caught sight of a crackling arc of electricity moving around the man's hands.

'What the hell? This man is a cape and he's not wearing a mask?' he wondered while his builtin camera recorded everything he saw.

"Dragon ... identify the cape in front of me," he ordered.

"The cape in front of you matches the identity of a man called Danny Herbert, forty-two years old and current leader of the Dockworkers' Union. His wife, Annette Herbert is officially deceased, having died in a road accident ten years ago. He has one daughter, aged fifteen, by the name of Taylor Herbert, a student at Winslow High School," Dragon answered.

'Sophia's school?' he wondered as he resolved to ask Sophia to get close to Taylor to find out more about her father.

His thoughts were interrupted,however, when a loud roar erupted from the building. Lung leaped out of the burning two-story building to tear into Danny Herbert with terrifying speed ... only for Danny to throw a strong punch at him that sent him flying back into the burning two-story building ... and out again into the wall of a warehouse that caved in on top of the leader of the ABB.

"I need you to come with me to HQ to fill in a report on what is happening," Armsmaster spoke to Danny for the first time.

"Beg your pardon? Kind of busy here," Danny replied matter-of-factly, his attention fully on Lung as he saw the ABB leader digging himself out of the rubble.

The flame-covered dragon that was now twenty feet long suddenly charged forward at Danny in a burst of energy again. With a well-aimed karate-style kick, Danny struck Lung a mighty blow that sent him flying out of the neighbourhood into the sky. Armsmaster's widened slightly.

"So what did you want to talk about?" Danny asked, his attention finally turned to Armsmaster.

"Have you ever thought of joining the Protectorate?" he asked.

When Taylor caught sight of Lung fighting her father, her first thought was to get her father out of danger. She reacted instinctively when she saw the blue flames Lung was breathing out, engulfing her father.

_Shinra Tensei!_

And directed a well-aimed gravity distortion pulse towards Lung, knocking him backwards towards a worn-down brick wall, shattering it and melting the gravel beneath his body. Her father looked a little startled to see Lung flying away from him but got over it quickly to unleash a highly-concentrated blast of electricity on the ABB leader from the palms of his hands. The crackling arc of electricity connected with Lung shocking him into paralysis and causing him to twitch uncontrollably for a whole minute.

Eventually, Danny let go of the connection to let Lung drop to the ground. Lung's wounds regenerated quickly and he launched himself at Danny again only to find himself flying away from his target, courtesy of another _Shinra Tensei_ attack from Taylor. The draconic-looking parahuman was flung out over two houses to crash into a ramshackle and decrepit two-story building that caught fire as soon as he entered it.

Danny advanced forward in the direction of his opponent.

"No Dad! Don't!" Taylor cried out as she saw the direction her father's footsteps were taking him.

She would have to get him out of there before Lung had another chance to attack. Taylor was about to do get there via a _Transmigration of the Soul_ when she saw them.

Armsmaster standing beside his hi-tech bike.

And Oni Lee ... watching silently from the top of a building.

They were both observing the fight. Taylor badly wanted to don a mask and a costume to get her father out of there but she was afraid that her father wouldn't recognise her if she did so. On the hand, if she went there without a mask or costume, she would be _outed_ as a cape in short order.

What to do? Oh ... what to do? She pondered before deciding to get rid of the onlookers ... starting, of course, with Oni Lee.

_Shinra Tensei!_

She shoved Oni Lee against the wall, _hard_, with a gravity pulse, catching him by surprise ... and to her relief ... Oni Lee dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes and did not get back up again. She turned her attention to Armsmaster only to see Lung leaped out of the burning building in the direction of her father. She unleashed another _Shinra Tensei_ attack on Lung just as Danny connected with his fist in the ABB leader's face. Lung was flung so hard in the opposite direction that he practically exploded his way through the wall of the burning building that he had just got out of, into another old and empty warehouse.

_Shinra Tensei!_

The entire warehouse collapsed down on top of Lung, burying him alive. Taylor turned her attention to Armsmaster.

"Use _Tsukiyomi_," a familiar voice stated.

Taylor was about to use it when Lung burst out of the collapsed warehouse in a loud roar of anger. To her surprise, her father struck Lung with a karate-style kick that sent Lung flying into the sky.

'Wow!' she thought.

'Since when did Dad become so strong?' she wondered and turned her attention to Armsmaster.

She activated _Tsukiyomi_ and the Protectorate leader collapsed to the ground, unconscious. Without wasting anymore time, she went to her father's side via _Transmigration of the Soul_.

"Taylor, what are you doing here?" he asked in a mixture of startlement and disbelief.

"We have to get out of here, Dad, before more people arrive," she answered.

"What do you mean by that? Let them come! The more, the merrier! I am having a great time! Join me!" her father beckoned.

"We could turn Brockton Bay upside down! I can be the _new_ _King!_ " he stretched out his arms as if to encompass the area he was in.

"And you can be the _Princess! _"

At that moment, the memory of Arjuna's words echoed through her mind.

_Teach the meditation techniques in it to Danny Herbert. He's going to need it to counter the shard's influence on his actions._

_The shard's influence?_ Taylor wondered about that.

"Dad! If we stay here any longer, everyone will know that we are capes!" Taylor spoke quickly.

"Let them know! It isn't _proper_ for a _King_ and a _Princess_ to hide their identities from their subjects!" her father declared in a loud voice.

Arrrggghh! Taylor was about to scream in frustration.

Somebody is bound to be arriving soon! she thought frantically.

_Be patient with him. The shard's influences are quite strong._

Arjuna's warning came to the forefront of her mind.

"Please Dad! Just for me! So that I can become a superhero!" she pleaded, using her puppy-dog eyes.

Danny looked at her for what must have been an eternity.

"Alright! Fine! We'll hide our identities though I think it just isn't right for a King and his daughter to hide their identities from their subjects," her father grumbled.

"But he already knows who I am," Danny pointed at the fallen Armsmaster.

"Not to worry Dad. I _changed_ _his memory_ so he wouldn't remember what happened. All, he would remember is the burning place. That's it," Taylor cheerfully replied with a smile.

"Alright! You naughty girl! Let's go home," he said.

She wrapped her arm around her father and the two of them vanished in a whirlwind of colours. Meanwhile, lying on the ground, right next to them earlier, an unconscious Armsmaster's suit _continued to record everything_ _that had transpired_. 


	5. Interludes: Some

Interlude: Armsmaster

"So .. Colin, can you tell us what happened last night?" Director Piggot asked.

"I was riding out on patrol when there was a power outage. I told Dragon to send a message to the power company so they could get to work on the power grid. After that, I went to investigate the cause of the power outage just in case it was the work of an overzealous Tinker with an energy-intensive device. You know the drill. When I got to the area, the whole place was on fire," he answered.

"Did you see anything else?" the Director asked again.

"Nothing that I can remember," the Ward leader replied without any hesitation.

"What about when you called Dragon about alerting the fire department to the fire problem in the area?" It was Hannah this time.

"I remember that," he added.

"And then you cancelled it when you saw Lung in the area," the Director explained.

"Cancelled it? For what? I didn't see Lung at all," he replied in bewilderment.

"Dragon, play back the footage from Colin's suit. Dragon has confirmed that the footage itself has not been modified in anyway," she ordered.

Armsmaster watched the footage intensely while the Director and Hannah observed his reactions in silence.

"Danny Herbert's a cape? That's not possible. I would have remembered all of it if it had happened," he objected strongly to what he was seeing.

"It gets better," she added.

"Taylor Herbert? Impossible! I didn't see her at all at the place. Her eyes ... they're ... chang ... ing ... red ..." Colin began to drawl on listlessly.

"Of course not! By the time we found you, you were out cold by the roadside but your suit's builtin cameras recorded everything. You were unconscious for a total of six hours, Colin. Your memories have been altered, somehow," the Director answered.

Colin went silent and then drool began to appear from the side of his mouth.

"By her. Dragon ... what happened to Colin? He's out again," she pointed out.

"It appears that looking into Taylor's eyes again have caused Armsmaster to relapse back into unconsciousness ... possibly some kind of unintended side-effect or secondary effect of the memory modification process. Can't really be sure unless we have him watch the footage with Taylor Herbert's eyes in it again. Do you wish for that to happen, Director?" Dragon asked.

"Do it. When Colin wakes up again, play back the footage for him to see. And note his reactions. We have to know exactly what we're dealing with. And if it's true that this Herbert girl somehow changed or altered his memories, you know what has to be done," the Director got up from her chair before leaving the room with Hannah.

**Location : Brockton Bay Protectorate HQ **  
><strong>Type : Security Briefing 107643 CODE BLACK<strong>  
><strong>Date : 06161999<strong>  
><strong>Time : 1200<strong>  
><strong>Authorization : Director Emily Piggot<strong>

"Thank you for coming to the briefing, everyone. OK ... Listen up! This is our target ... Taylor Herbert. Gender ... female ... Age ... fifteen years old ... Current school ... Winslow High. Hobbies ... unknown ... Mother ... Deceased ... Father ... Danny Herbert ... Age ... forty-two years old ... Current occupation ... Leader of the Dockworkers Union ... Past Occupation ... NYPD ... Elite Narcotics Tactical Division Chief ... Quit after five years due to too much stress and dangers from gangmembers with cape powers ..."

"We need more information on the target ... where she goes ... what clothes she wears ... who her friends are ... what tampoon brands she uses ... whatever you can get your hands on ... include it in your report ... now some of you may ask why we are taking steps that may seem quite over the top about a fifteen year girl who hasn't even been out of high school yet ... I would like you all to review what we have on this footage that we got from Armsmaster. Take note that the recording has not been modified in any way ... "

"As you well know, Armsmaster's memories have been altered. She also persuaded her father by looking into his eyes. It's not yet proven ... but due to this incident, we have reason to believe that her memory-altering powers have something to do with eye contact. Meaning, whatever you do, none of you ... I REPEAT ... NONE OF YOU WHATSOEVER ARE TO LOOK DIRECTLY INTO HER EYES under any circumstances. This fact cannot be overemphasised enough. We cannot risk a security breach due to the target reading whatever's in your mind."

"For all purposes, Taylor Herbert has been classified as a Master Eight ... Stranger Eight ... Mover Eight ... Remember everyone ... this is just an information gathering mission. None of you are to do anything to confront, fight or subdue the target in any way unless it's been cleared through me, first! We only get one chance at this, SO MAKE IT COUNT!"

"Why just one chance some of you may ask?"

"Because logic dictates that once action has been taken against Taylor Herbert, she will take precautions the second time round after the first attempt failed ... and this will of course include her father, Danny Herbert. Take note of what her father is capable of ... That's right ... Her father basically kicked Lung into low-earth orbit while he was having a casual conversation with Armsmaster! Dragon's satellite feeds have confirmed it. Danny Herbert has been classified with a Brute Eight and Blaster Six rating from what we know about him. Things will get messy once he gets involved and we all don't want that to happen, do we?"

"Remember, what's spoken in here, stays in here. If I find out that any of you breathed any of these parts of the security briefing out to anyone ... and I literally mean anyone including your grandmothers ... in your sleep ... you'll get sent to some place where the sun don't shine for the rest of your life, you got it? That's all. Any further questions? Otherwise, you're all dismissed."

Interlude: Danny

Ten hours ago, Danny Herbert was just an ordinary man living an ordinary life in Brockton Bay. That changed when his daughter got back home from school that night. In actuality, change was too mild a word for it. A proper description for his situation would have been his world had just been turned upside down when she began to describe what was going on with her social life both in school and out of school.

He was terribly shocked to learn from his daughter that one of the main bullies was none other than Emma, his precious daughter's childhood friend. What could have caused such a drastic change to make a sweet thing like Emma turned on Taylor as if she was nothing more than garbage?

Danny was no fool. His years on the force had sharpened his detective skills to razor-sharp. Something drastic had to have caused Emma to leave her friend. But what could it be? How could he, a professional investigator, have missed all of these things that were going on right under his nose in his very house?

He left the force when the last drug bust by his narcotics squad ended up in a massacre which hammered into him the danger of capes becoming involved in the drug trade to police personnel. He didn't want Annette to end up dead or worse as a result of the job he was doing. Law breakers like drug pushers tend to become unhappy when law enforcement officials try to bring down the law on top of them for their illegal activities.

And when they become unhappy, bad things happen. One of his officer's family had been killed in a suspicious fire at their family home after a successful drug bust. Everyone on the force knew it was revenge but they just couldn't prove it. The officer himself was killed in a hit-and-run accident not long later. Then one of the SWAT team members asked for a transfer. He was soon followed by another. Then another ... and another. Very soon the entire task force dealing with serious crimes had either resigned or asked for a transfer to another safer place.

Before long, he was the only veteran member left on the force ... the rest being newbies who were either desperate for a job or triggerhappy gunghos too dumb to understand the dangers that they were facing on the frontlines. The drug bust that went bad was but one example of what happened when greens or inexperienced people filled the positions of what used to be the sole purview of experienced well-trained law personnel. Unfortunately, the NYPD had become rather shorthanded and they were forced to take in anyone they could. This incident had also served to strengthen the notion of finding a safer job as soon as possible when he could.

He thought he had it when he began working as an ordinary pencil pusher for the city council. He was wrong. Things went from bad to worse for New York city when the gang wars intensified with the entry of the E88, the ABB and the Merchants. The older gangs like the Golden Posse, the Black Crescent and the Warlords were either pushed out or eradicated, their bodies left to hang in public places such as trees or bridges as a warning to interlopers.

Then as if it couldn't get any worse, the socio-economic situation began to decline with the appearance of the Endbringers. The shipping industry which held the last hope for many people in New York for a decent life suffered a crippling blow as Leviathan's presence in the ocean made certain that transporting goods by sea a risky proposition.

The Graveyard, where all the destitute and desperate gather now, was one such result. Now he was stuck trying to make ends meet for himself and Taylor as head of the Dockworkers' Union. Things had certainly gone to hell in a basket. And now this ... His daughter had suffered so much at the hands of school bullies that she had become a cape.

Just as he had become one, he thought grimly as he studied the sparking arcs of electricity that danced in his palms before shifting into blue flames and vice versa whenever he wished it. Oh ... he had plenty of time to experiment with his power. For one thing, he no longer felt fatigued. That much, he deduced since he was still feeling rather invigorated by his night's activities. The induced high of the energy rushing through him ensured that.

Although he could only wonder at his daughter's strange behaviour at insisting he studied some exotic meditation techniques. Meditation techniques which he didn't feel like doing until she had used those dreaded puppy-dog eyes on him again. He finally gave into her wishes and began practicing them.

Interestingly enough, the induced high that had been clouding his mind began to clear up like a fog disappearing, enabling him to think clearly again. And now that he was finally able to think clearly, he realised just how reckless and foolhardy he had been behaving as he began to go though the night's adventures again in his mind.

For one thing, what kind of sane person would be willing to fight two capes in one night? Especially when one of them was Lung? Danny clearly remembered the feeling of being able to take on the world and win, the unforgettable feeling of invincibility ... of never being defeated again ... by anyone ... by anything ... was this how champions always felt? He wondered. For the first time since Annette's death, an old familiar feeling began to creep into him.

It was hope.

Danny Herbert was a man of action. Coming tomorrow, the first thing he was going to do was to go to Winslow High with his precious daughter and tell the school administration what he thought of them in a rather delightful and colourful language. Wait ... on second thought, if he did that, it would make the lawsuit harder to win ... if he had the money that is ... Maybe he could ask one of his friends that he had usually worked with on the force in the past for some advice.

And the first name sprang to mind.

Interlude: Shadow Stalker

"Hello Emma."

"Hi Sophia. Good to hear from you," came a familiar voice from the other end.

"Where are you right now?"

"At home ... in bed and watching TV."

"Are you alone?"

"Yes. Mum and Dad are both out at the moment. Is anything the matter?" Emma asked.

"Something's come up. I'm not supposed to say this to you but I just couldn't do it without warning you," Sophia explained.

"What's up Sophia?" she queried.

"Whatever you do, do not make eye contact with Taylor." Sophia warned.

"Taylor? What about her? What is wrong?" Emma asked, suddenly concerned.

"She triggered, Emma. The PRT is taking it very seriously. According to what I heard, Taylor could alter a person's memory with her power. She altered Armsmaster's memory and the worst thing is he doesn't even know it until the PRT told him. And even then, he has trouble recalling what happened."

"Taylor can change a person's memory?" Emma asked with more than a hint of fear in her voice.

"That's not all. She can teleport. The PRT has classified her as a Master/Stranger/Mover 8 on all counts. They're not sure but they believe that she can turn invisible because Armsmaster's video recorder never even saw her coming before he was knocked unconscious with his memories changed."

"That is scary ... What do we do?" Emma breathed out.

"We leave her alone for the time being. Tell Madison and Julia to back off as well," Sophia answered.

"What if they asked why? What do I tell them?"

"Emma ... this is just between you and me. I could get into a lot of trouble for telling you this. I was not supposed to let anyone else outside the PRT learn of this. So don't tell anyone the reason, okay?" she asked.

"Sure, Sophia. Thanks for telling," Emma answered.

"One more thing ... I also know I'm not supposed to say this but her father is also a cape."

"Her father ... Mr. Herbert? Crap!" Emma swore.

"You can say that again. Her father sent Lung flying into low-earth orbit with one kick!" Sophia exclaimed.

"That's seriously ... badass!" Emma could barely keep down her panic.

"It is ... That's why I'm warning you in advance. This is just between the two of us, okay? Don't even tell Madison. I could get into a lot of trouble for this," Sophia warned.

"Okay ... No one else will know. This is just between the two of us," Emma answered.

"Just the two of us. Somebody's coming. Talk to you later. "

And Sophia hung up quickly.

Interlude: Lung

Lung _flew_.

He had no idea how long he had been flying through the skies and the clouds ... but still he _flew_. He wouldn't have minded it, rather enjoyed it ... save for the fact that he was clearly not flying under his own power at the moment, even though he had the wings to do so. Ironically enough, he was flying through the sky courtesy of _a_ _kick_, he recalled, _a single kick_ by a _lone_ _unmasked_ cape unknown to him. And had fought him easily to a standstill in close quarters combat.

_Standstill?_

If the fight could be called a standstill.

Lung easily recalled what had happened during the fight. He had fought the new cape tooth and nail with his flames and claws. But nothing he did seem to even _hurt_ or _affect_ the unmasked cape. When he struck the cape with his claws, the new cape would block the blows seemingly _without effort_ and then retaliate with fast punches. Punches that hit _hard_. _Really hard_.

Lung could still remember the strength of those blows on his body even in his dragon form. They were _strong_, _really strong_ like Alexandria's blows, a member of the Triumvirate. In fact, the punches that the new cape was throwing at him seemed to be becoming stronger and stronger as the fight progressed ... just like _him_.

It reminded him of an old enemy that he had fought a few times, back in the old days before he had obtained his parahuman powers. An old wizened master of an ancient martial art style known as _taichi_ which utilised the strength of an enemy against the enemy itself. In short, the harder an enemy struck a taichi master, the harder the returned blow would be suffered by the enemy. The _old taichi master_ had taken down Lung's earlier gang back in Japan when he had tried to take control of the neighbourhood.

Lung could not forget what had happened. After he had obtained his parahuman powers from a drug overdose, he had gone in search of the ancient master once again to settle the score. He was going to pound the old taichi master's face into the ground ... only to find that the old man was _no_ longer in Japan. He had asked around but no one seemed to know where the old man had gone. Then Leviathan had attacked and Lung had bigger things to worry about.

Still,_ he would not forget_ _this face_. The _unknown cape's face_. Like the ancient taichi master he had fought. Since in a roundabout way, the unknown cape reminded him of someone very familiar ... Lung _himself_. 


End file.
